Update on oggbashan's health

[oggbashan]

That approach to official secrets could sure be used on this side of the pond.

In 1943/4 he was classified as a BIGOT - one of the few people who knew well in advance that the invasion was heading for Normandy. That was the highest possible Allied security clearance of WW2.

 

[PAUL C]

Best wishes. I've not been on much over covid and have just seen this post.

 

[SimonDoom]

Interesting information about your father. It's such a fascinating time to read about. Knowing that you held information the disclosure of which could change the fate of the world.

 

[oggbashan]

Interesting information about your father. It's such a fascinating time to read about. Knowing that you held information the disclosure of which could change the fate of the world.

There were very few Bigots.

There was panic when an American Bigot was lost during Operation Tiger, the practice D-Day landing at Slapton Sands which was attacked by German E-boats. There was relief when his body was found.

 

[XerXesXu]

There were very few Bigots.

There was panic when an American Bigot was lost during Operation Tiger, the practice D-Day landing at Slapton Sands which was attacked by German E-boats. There was relief when his body was found.

Start Point lighthouse, which overlooks Slapton, was my Grandad's first married home. He was gassed out in 1916, joined Trinity House, got married and was posted there. My father may have been conceived there, I never enquired. When we were shipped off to Plymouth for holidays with our grandparents, we often spent idyllic days there, catching 'things' in the Ley and playing on the beach.

 

[Athalia]

This coming Sunday (if I live that long) will be the 11th anniversary of the esteemed chap in the white coat telling me that my life expectancy was 'a matter of months not years'.

Well, did you make the deadline, Sam? Don't keep us in suspense!

 

[LoquiSordidaAdMe]

This coming Sunday (if I live that long) will be the 11th anniversary of the esteemed chap in the white coat telling me that my life expectancy was 'a matter of months not years'.

Keep on keeping on, Ogg.

I sometimes wonder if doctors don't occasionally give such a prognosis just to motivate them to prove the doctors wrong.

EDIT: This was just an idle thought. Not meant to disparage the people who have beaten the odds they were given.

 

[oggbashan]

I was genuinely worried. Three consultants had said (three years+ ago) that I would die within months and put it in writing...

My medical daughter (a consultant in terminal care) disagreed.

 

[SamScribble]

Well, did you make the deadline, Sam? Don't keep us in suspense!

Yep. I was still very much alive when I woke up this morning, Athalia. (But two of my friends had died. )

 

[sirhugs]

Yep. I was still very much alive when I woke up this morning, Athalia. (But two of my friends had died. )

"very much alive" is very ambitious. I settle for "able to talk my body into getting out of bed."
Sorry to hear about your friends.

 

[SamScribble]

Sorry to hear about your friends.

Thank you, sirhugs. We are not having a good run. Mind you, the 'babies' among us are now well and truly past 70. Mustn't grumble.

 

[sirhugs]

Thank you, sirhugs. We are not having a good run. Mind you, the 'babies' among us are now well and truly past 70. Mustn't grumble.

yeah. 65 next month, but with health issues might as well be 75 and sometimes feel 85. in a tough patch.

 

[oggbashan]

I have just booked the next Covid booster jabs for my wife and myself. The online system is clunky. For each appointment, I had to enter both our NHS numbers and our dates of birth three times.

The system offers the 'nearest' places. The first six included places in Essex - near as the crow flies but there is the Thames Estuary and the Dartford Crossing in the way. Travel time depending on congestion? 3 to 5 hours each way!

I couldn't book the same times for my wife and myself. They are on Sunday afternoon. There is a twenty-five-minute gap. But we will both turn up for the earlier appointment and hope...

PS. Twenty seconds after I received the email confirming the appointment, I had a reminder email!

 

[JGittes]

I have just booked the next Covid booster jabs for my wife and myself. The online system is clunky. For each appointment, I had to enter both our NHS numbers and our dates of birth three times.

The system offers the 'nearest' places. The first six included places in Essex - near as the crow flies but there is the Thames Estuary and the Dartford Crossing in the way. Travel time depending on congestion? 3 to 5 hours each way!

I couldn't book the same times for my wife and myself. They are on Sunday afternoon. There is a twenty-five-minute gap. But we will both turn up for the earlier appointment and hope...

PS. Twenty seconds after I received the email confirming the appointment, I had a reminder email!

Ogg. I volunteer at the Covid vaccination center in Haywards Heath, south of Crawley. Our center allows walk-ins for just the reasons you are having problems with. If you know your local vaccination center, drop by and ask if they do walk-ins, they probably do. Most of the time, walk-ins are faster than scheduled.

PM if you want more details.

 

[oggbashan]

Ogg. I volunteer at the Covid vaccination center in Haywards Heath, south of Crawley. Our center allows walk-ins for just the reasons you are having problems with. If you know your local vaccination center, drop by and ask if they do walk-ins, they probably do. Most of the time, walk-ins are faster than scheduled.

PM if you want more details.

Thanks. There is a walk-in centre about 7 miles away but the local council has scheduled and emergency road works on all the routes between me and there. The centre we have booked is only a mile away with ample disabled parking.

 

[oggbashan]

My wife and I have just returned from our (4th) booster Covid jabs. Her about was 25 minutes after mine but they did us at the same time and we were back home five minutes before her scheduled time.

 

[jehoram]

I got Covid shot #4 and my flu shot at the same time. But one in each arm, to balance the grief.

 

[oggbashan]

I got Covid shot #4 and my flu shot at the same time. But one in each arm, to balance the grief.

I had my flu jab some time ago. But neither affected me at all.

 

[oggbashan]

Today was a friend's funeral. It was attended by only a few - mainly relations, descendants, and their other halves. We were there as his friends of nearly 60 years standing.

It made me sad to see so few friends present. He had outlived most of them, and those still living were too frail to make the journey.

My wife and I are older than he was.

 

[oggbashan]

Tomorrow evening I am addressing a local council committee. It will probably be the last of many because my voice is failing.

I used to speak about once a month a decade ago and found it very easy. This time will be a considerable effort.

I hate knowing it is the last time. For so many activities now, I know I can never do them again, and the number is growing.

 

[jehoram]

Tomorrow evening I am addressing a local council committee. It will probably be the last of many because my voice is failing.

I used to speak about once a month a decade ago and found it very easy. This time will be a considerable effort.

I hate knowing it is the last time. For so many activities now, I know I can never do them again, and the number is growing.

There are a few doors that have closed for me, too. And many more for my friends, some of who will never walk again, or speak again, or think clearly again.

I don't know what addressing a local council committee entails. There are a lot of text-to-speech programs that may come in handy if you merely have to give a speech. Of course, if you have to respond to questions, things may get annoyingly slow. But unlike Stephen Hawking, you have a choice of accents, whereas he had to be content with a quasi-American one.

Roger Ebert, possibly the most influential American movie critic of the 20th century, lost the ability to speak (and eat!) after a disastrous bout with cancer. He compensated in part with those programs when called upon to speak, but continued to use writing as his main form of communication. I remember that he once lamented that he had lost his voice, and a correspondent replied, "No. You lost speech. Voice still loud and clear."

May it be that way with your for a long time to come. And I must remind you that your first post on this thread was over three years ago. For a guy living on borrowed time, you've done very well indeed.

 

[KeithD]

Tomorrow evening I am addressing a local council committee. It will probably be the last of many because my voice is failing.

I used to speak about once a month a decade ago and found it very easy. This time will be a considerable effort.

I hate knowing it is the last time. For so many activities now, I know I can never do them again, and the number is growing.

Yep. The downside of not going earlier, unexpectedly, and at the height of an active life.

On the speaking issues, COVID isolated me so much that at some point, I found it was hard to speak at all, because I'd been doing so little of it, and then it was a surprise at a funeral to find I had lost my singing voice because I hadn't been using it, all of the choirs I'd been in and stage productions having gone on hiatus. I had been a stage soloist and suddenly was finding that if you stopped using it, combined with physical ailments, you lost what you once had had.

 

[Voboy]

Today was a friend's funeral. It was attended by only a few - mainly relations, descendants, and their other halves. We were there as his friends of nearly 60 years standing.

It made me sad to see so few friends present. He had outlived most of them, and those still living were too frail to make the journey.

My wife and I are older than he was.

Sorry for your loss, Ogg.

 

[oggbashan]

Yep. The downside of not going earlier, unexpectedly, and at the height of an active life.

On the speaking issues, COVID isolated me so much that at some point, I found it was hard to speak at all, because I'd been doing so little of it, and then it was a surprise at a funeral to find I had lost my singing voice because I hadn't been using it, all of the choirs I'd been in and stage productions having gone on hiatus. I had been a stage soloist and suddenly was finding that if you stopped using it, combined with physical ailments, you lost what you once had had.

One of the first signs of my cancer, apart from unsteadiness on my feet, was that my voice became very indistinct, so much so that I was sent to a speech therapist who could do nothing for me. My mouth, throat, and vocal cords were OK. The problem was that the cancer was affecting the speech parts of my brain. Even now I have to expend considerable effort to speak clearly. It doesn't help that my wife, like me, has hearing problems.

Our conversations are punctuated with "What did you say?" until we get so frustrated we write it down.

As for singing? I was an acceptable Boy Treble, so much so that I was on call at the local Cathedral to augment the choir for major festivals. When I went to an all boys' boarding school at age 11 I was selected as the understudy for any of the Three Little Maids in The Mikado. The producer hoped he wouldn't have to use me because even at that age I was taller than the rest of the cast. My regular, non-singing role was as The Mikado's executioner carrying a large axe.

But a week before the production my voice began to break. I became a Basso profundo, unable to reach the higher notes of a Bass part. There are very few roles for Basso profundo, so my singing career ended abruptly.

 

[oggbashan]

Tomorrow evening I am addressing a local council committee. It will probably be the last of many because my voice is failing.

I used to speak about once a month a decade ago and found it very easy. This time will be a considerable effort.

I hate knowing it is the last time. For so many activities now, I know I can never do them again, and the number is growing.

I spoke, tonight - the only speaker from the public for the whole meeting.

I had three minutes allowed. It took 2 minutes 55 seconds. My practice run-through at home had taken 2 minutes 45, but I added a few words at the end.